Deepcool's Ice Matrix 600 heatsink is a relatively flat
profile tower cooler that stands 165mm tall, 70mm deep. It weighs upwards of
1100grams and is built with no fewer than six, U-shaped 6mm diameter copper
heatpipes that wind their way from the copper base plate to
the top of the 103mm tall aluminum fin stack. The heatpipes are
lined up in a single row so closely that they almost span the entire 141mm
width of the heatsink!

As with DeepCool's other heatsinks, the Ice Matrix 600 cooler ships
with a special fan that has a resilient layer of rubber surrounding the entire fan frame. In
other words, every section of the frame that makes contact with the heatsink is covered in a
thin layer of this elastomer.

Up to two fans can be installed on the Ice Matrix
600 heatsink, though only one 140mm PWM fan that operates at 1300-900RPM is included.
Extra wire fan clips are supplied so you can mount an additional 140mm
fan to the rear of the fin stack, if desired.

The
Deepcool Ice Matrix 600 heatsink is compatible with Intel socket
775/1155/1156/1366 and AMD socket AM2/AM3 processors. It should retail for
around $48USD via the usual online
computer stores. DeepCool are Beijing-based, but will be exhibiting at CES 2011 the first week of January
(LVCC South Hall 2, Ground Level #26430) if you're in Vegas and want to check out this and other new cooling gear it will be launching.

In the cut-away image (below) of a 140mm Deepcool
UF140 PWM fan, the blue portions of the fan impeller and frame are made from
rigid plastic. The light gray area is the rubber which has been over moulded to
encapsulate the rest of the fan frame and essentially create a vibration
dampening surface no matter where, or to what, the fan is mounted. Deepcool make
a range of fans from 80mm - 140mm like this.

The
rubber over moulded fan
may come off as a novelty at first, but not having to deal with those thin
and fragile rubber fan posts used with other heatsinks is a real win-win. Behind the 140mm UF140 PWM fan and its rubber over-moulded frame are
the squared off fins of the Ice Matrix 600 heatsink.

The six 6mm diameter heatpipes are soldered to the bottom copper base plate and then
twist about so that all twelve ends pass through the 103mm tall aluminum fin
stack in a long row. The heatpipes are spaced every 3mm or so, with a larger 25mm
gap in the center

Note the easy to use wire fan clips and the little
hand holds built into them. More than one heatsink Frostytech has tested has used
wire fan clips which offer no easy way of disengaging them from the slot in the side
of the fin stack.

Heatsink Mounting Hardware

The
Deepcool Ice Matrix 600 heatsink ships with few
different rear support brackets that screw onto the base of the heatsink to accommodate
the full gamut of Intel and AMD processor sockets.

A rear motherboard
support plate is first placed behind the
motherboard, so unfortunately that means users may need to pull their board from
the PC case. For both Intel and AMD mounting systems, small threaded nipples
are attached to the studs on the rear support brackets first. After that it's
just a matter of attaching the appropriate Intel or AMD mounting bracket to the
base of the Ice Matrix 600 heatsink, applying thermal compound evenly to the
processors' integrated heatspreader and heatsink mounting base, then installing
the CPU cooler with the spring tensioned thumb screws.

The mounting brackets all opt for a slightly larger
metric screw than is typically used with threaded Intel brackets or even AMD's
6-32 thread screws. The nice bit about these brackets is that the Intel clips
support all three socket formfactors, just by sliding the screw across
a pre-defined slot.

Spring tensioned, shouldered screws ensure that the DeepCool heatsink will be installed
with the correct amount of force, not over tightened or unevenly mounted.
Apart from mounting brackets, DeepCool supply four 140mm wire fan clips,
a syringe of thermal grease and three different fan power
adaptors.

FrostyTech's Test Methodologies are outlined in detail
here if you care to know what equipment is used, and the parameters under
which the tests are conducted. Now let's move forward and take a closer look at
this heatsink, its acoustic characteristics, and of course its performance in
the thermal tests!